


A Lesson in Time

by sir_kingsley



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Drug Addiction, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sir_kingsley/pseuds/sir_kingsley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean is tossed into the year 2014 and discovers that a lot has changed. Especially between him and Cas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lesson in Time

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this based on this Tumblr post: http://deancasheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/96220313051/what-if-when-2009-dean-showed-up-at-cas-cabin
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It didn’t take Dean too long to free himself from the cuffs his future self has put him in. He climbed to his feet and rubbed his wrists idly. Honestly, what had his future self been thinking? Dean was a master of escaping. He was practically the Houdini of hunters.

He smirked at himself. Houdini of hunters. He’d have to tell Sammy that one.

Shit, Sammy. He needed to get back to his brother.

“Zachariah,” Dean growled, glaring around the cabin. “I know you’re listening, you dick. Send me back.”

The angel didn’t answer. 

“Zachariah!” Dean shouted.

Nothing. No angel, no bright lights, no sonic singing, no Earth quaking.

“Damn it,” Dean muttered, turning in frustrated circles.

He was not staying here for three days. And he sure as hell wasn’t staying locked up in here with… himself.

Dean stepped out of the cabin heasitantly. The coast looked clear, but he stayed close to the walls just in case.

“Oh, Dean, I’m-”

Dean flung around, hand going for his knife only to remember his future self had stolen all his weapons. But it turned out he didn’t need a weapon. It was just chuck.

“Chuck?”

Chuck was frowning at him. “You okay?”

“Hmm? What? Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. Fine. Fine.”

Chuck peered at him for a few more suspicious seconds then started rambling about provisions and needing more supplies. Dean just blinked at him. What the hell was Chuck doing here? 

“Dean, are you listening?”

“Huh, what?”

“I said we need more toilet paper. We’ve got enough for one roll per cabin. We can probably stretch that for a week. Also Cas is running low-”

“Cas?” Dean leaned forward anxiously. “Cas is here?”

Chuck paused and blinked a few times. “Ugh, yeah… I don’t think Cas is going anywhere.”

“Where is he?”

“In his cabin.” Another pause. Dean just waited. “On the north side of camp… Dean, are you sure you’re – Hey, where are you going?”

Dean didn’t answer and just kept running. He crossed paths with a few guards and each time prepared himself for a fight. But each of them just nodded gruffly in his direction and turned away. Dean shrugged and kept going. His future self must have been the big boss or something.

After a few minutes Dean reached a small ramshackle cabin tucked into a corner of overgrowing plants. He climbed the squeaky wooden steps and was about to knock when it occurred to him that his future self probably didn’t knock. After a moment of deliberation he just turned the knob and slipped inside.

The air was thick and sweet with incense. The room was dark, lit only by a few candles, and annoyingly spotless. Looked like future Cas hadn’t changed too much.

“I’m in the bedroom,” a familiar voice called.

Dean froze and inched toward the nearest wall. He was confident that had been Cas’s voice but who was he talking to?

“Are you coming?” Cas asked.

Cas appeared in the doorway a moment later with a brilliant smile that stunned Dean. “There you are,” the angel said as he stepped toward Dean. “Why didn’t you answer me?”

Dean was still so entranced by Cas’s smile that when the angel cupped Dean’s face and pressed a kiss to his lips, it took Dean a good five seconds to come to his senses.

He felt Cas’s tongue flick inside his mouth and Dean’s heart and stomach twisted into a tight knot. 

As abruptly as it had started, the kiss ended. Cas pulled away. His full-blown smile had downgraded to a confused smirk.

“Whoa,” he breathed. “You’re not.. you. At least, not now you.” Cas’s eyes widened when Dean didn’t answer. “We haven’t kissed yet from when you’re from, have we?”

All Dean could do was blink at the man in front of him, his mouth still hanging open. Cas’s words dawned on him slowly. “…yet?”

Laughter bubbled out of Cas. “What year are you from?” he asked, leaning closer to Dean, peering closely into his eyes.

“Ugh, 2009,” Dean finally managed.

“2009…” Something sad flashed through Cas’s clouded eyes. “That was quite a year.”

Dean opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to think of something to say but repeatedly failing. “So you… and me… we’re… you and I… we’re like…”

That giant smile returned and Cas patted Dean’s shoulder. “Come on, you’re going to want a drink.”

Cas showed Dean to a small kitchen and he sat at the table while Cas pulled two glasses and a half-empty bottle of whisky from the cabinet. He sat across from Dean and poured for both of them. 

Dean took a long swig and watched as Cas tossed all of his back and poured another. This man was so different from the Cas he knew. He was so loose, easy-going. His hair was disheveled and he seemed tired but also happy. Too happy. Falsely happy. Dean saw it every time he looked in those familiar blue eyes. It was like they weren’t truly seeing, not able to focus. 

“So we’re…” Dean tried again.

“Dating,” Cas finished.

“Dating. Right.” 

“You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I just… I can’t…”

“Figure it out? I know.” Cas snorted. “Know it better than anyone, trust me.”

Dean blew out a breath. “So how long? How’d it… happen?”

Cas tilted his head and grinned. “Oh come on, Dean, you think I’d just rebel against heaven for anybody?” He sighed into this drink. “I’ve loved you since about the moment I put my hand on you in hell. The rest of the time I was just waiting on you.”

“What about Sam?” Dean thought all of a sudden. “What does he think of… us?”

That sad look for earlier returned and Cas reached into his pocket to extract a pill bottle. He shook three little white ovals into his palm and tossed them back with his whisky as Dean just stared.

“He… he never had a problem with it.” His false smile was back. “In fact, I believe his words when we told him were, ‘It’s about damn time.’”

Dean couldn’t help smiling. It was nice to know his brother was accepting of this. “Wait, how long did he suspect-?”

“That we loved each other? Sam’s a smart kid, Dean. He notices things. He figured it out before you did.”

“Yeah, I suppose he would. So I kept you waiting, huh?”

Cas giggled. Actually giggled and put his glass on the table. “That’s an understatement. Getting Dean Winchester to talk about any of his emotions is a great feat, but getting you to talk about love, love for a man in particular…” He blew out a breath. “Might as well try stopping the apocalypse.”

Dean grinned, though it was bitter. “Well, Cas, I gotta hand it to you. You’re a champ for even wanting to deal with me. I’ve never exactly been grade-A boyfriend material.”

“Oh, you’re still not. You refuse to celebrate any common couple’s holidays. Sam pestered you about it once and you gave me a giant cupid-shaped chocolate bar. You make stupid angel puns all the time. You’re overprotective and you get insanely jealous. You once threatened to stab a woman for calling me cute. Your idea of a romantic evening is eating cheeseburgers and drinking a stolen bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue.”

Dean couldn’t contain the laughter rising inside him. He laughed until there were tears in his eyes. When he could finally breathe again he opened his eyes. Cas’s smile had faltered. He leaned across the table, getting as close to Dean as he could and for several long seconds his eyes were crystal clear as they bore into Dean’s.

“I’d almost forgotten what they looked like,” Cas murmured.

“What what looked like?” Dean asked, fighting the urge to lean away.

“Your eyes… when you’re happy.”

After a few more seconds Cas sat back down and sipped his drink.

“What happened to me, Cas? What happened to you? You’re different.”

“It’s a different world, Dean. Things happened. And we changed.”

“And those?” Dean gestured toward the pill bottle.

Cas shrugged. “Like I said, things happened.”

Dean’s future self hadn’t been happy to find him and Cas together, but had stopped yelling when Cas told him everything would be fine.

For the next couple days Dean studied the couple closely, having nothing better to do. His future self really was an ass. Even toward Cas. There was no visible evidence that they were even a couple. Future Dean barely even talked to the man unless it was about strategy. 

And Cas… He was maybe the hardest to watch. He just put up with it, with the neglect and harsh temper. He pasted that fake smile on his face and nodded his head at everything Dean said.

The only sign Dean ever saw of their relationship was during their infiltration into Detroit. Cas was the only person future Dean allowed to stay with him. He knocked the present Dean out and sent the rest to die.

By the time Dean showed up to find Lucifer, his future self and Cas were dead. They lied stiff on the ground, facing each other, hands clasped together and eyes staring emptily into one another’s. 

And then Dean had to face the shock of his brother, his sweet little brother, being worn by Lucifer. And he had to listen as he used his brother’s voice to justify the end of the world. 

Then it was over. He was back in his own time, Zachariah harping on about why Dean needed to say “yes” to Michael. Dean told him to shove it and prepared for Zachariah’s wrath. Then, once again, he found himself soring through space to open his eyes and meet Cas’s gaze.

Cas. Clear, blue-eyed in a dirty trench coat and a backward tie Cas. His Cas.

“That was great timing,” Dean breathed.

“We had an appointment,” Cas replied evenly, with a slight smile.

Many thoughts were rushing through Dean’s head in that moment. Many doubts and warnings about what he was considering. But with a muttered curse he let them all go and pulled the angel in and kissed him.

Cas didn’t fight it. He was still for a few awkward seconds but seemed to catch on to what Dean wanted and obliged by opening his lips.

Dean didn’t know how this would change the future. It wouldn’t stop Sam from saying “yes” to Lucifer or keep the croatoan virus from spreading and destroying the world. 

But he was hoping that it would change one angel in the future. He prayed that if he finally stopped denying the truth he could make one special man five years from now smile a real smile and give him the kind of love he deserved then and now.


End file.
